1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a system and a method for performing testing of merchant messages and, more particularly, to a system and a method for enabling a merchant to test, in real time, messages to be used with a point-of-sale device.
2. Related Art
Consumers very often use financial transaction instruments as convenient forms of payment for purchases of goods and/or services (“goods/services”). A “financial transaction instrument,” also referred to herein as a “card,” may be any of the following: a traditional “plastic” transaction card (e.g., a credit card, a charge card, a debit card, a pre-paid or stored-value card, or the like); a titanium-containing, or other metal-containing, transaction card; a clear or translucent transaction card; a foldable or otherwise unconventionally-sized transaction card; a radio-frequency-enabled transaction card; or any other type of card used in connection with a financial transaction.
A financial transaction instrument may be configured with electronic functionality. For example, such an instrument can have electronic circuitry that is printed or otherwise incorporated onto or within it (commonly being referred to as a “smart card”), or may be a fob-type device having a transponder and a radio-frequency identification (“RFID”) reader. Additionally, a financial transaction instrument may be magnetically encoded with information, such as through use of a magnetic stripe, for example. Optionally, a financial transaction instrument may include a visible card identification number (“CID”) uniquely identifying a corresponding transaction account, in case the transaction instrument cannot easily be read electronically or magnetically.
A “transaction account,” as used herein, refers to an account associated with an open-account system or a closed-account system, which are discussed in more detail below. A transaction account may exist in a physical or a non-physical embodiment. For example, a transaction account may be distributed in a non-physical embodiment such as an account number, a frequent-flyer account, a telephone calling account, or the like. Furthermore, a physical embodiment of a transaction account may be distributed as a financial transaction instrument.
“Open cards” are financial transaction instruments associated with an open-account system and generally are accepted by different merchants. Examples of open cards include the American Express®, Visa®, MasterCard® and Discover® cards, which may be used at many different retailers and other businesses. In contrast, “closed cards” are financial transaction instruments associated with a closed-account system and may be restricted to use in a particular store, a particular chain of stores, or a collection of affiliated stores. One example of a closed card is a pre-paid gift card for The Gap®, which typically is purchased at and may only be accepted at The Gap® stores.
Generally, a merchant that wants to provide customers with the option to pay for goods/services with a particular type of open card will enter into an agreement with the issuer of that type of card (e.g., American Express®, Visa®, Discover®, MasterCard®, or the like). The issuer typically is a financial organization (e.g., American Express®, JPMorgan Chase, MBNA®, Citibank®, or the like) whose card-issuing activities are government regulated.
Because of the wide use of cards by consumers, the types and number of merchants that accept cards have grown and now include, in addition to the more traditional merchants such as stores and restaurants, taxi drivers, doctors, schools, street vendors, on-line vendors, and government agencies. Through the use of cards, merchants are able to obtain prompt payment for the purchased goods/services.
Issuers have a financial incentive to contract with as many merchants as possible to accept their cards. Typically, an issuer is paid a so-called “discount rate” by each merchant signed up to accept payment using the issuer's type of card. The discount rate may be, for example, a flat rate paid periodically or a rate based on the merchant's net sales that are paid for using the issuer's type of card.
In order to convince merchants to accept its card, an issuer may provide the merchants with assistance with the set-up process, at no cost to the merchants. The set-up process may include: providing the merchants with point-of-sale (“POS”) devices, including hardware and software for reading cards; providing training to employees of the merchants as to how to use the POS devices; providing communication equipment and establishing communication procedures for obtaining quick payment authorizations; and troubleshooting services.
A POS device may be any electronic device used by a merchant to input information regarding a purchase as well as other information, such as information regarding the merchant, information for identifying a financial transaction account from which payment for the purchase is to be obtained, etc. For example, the input information may include a dollar amount of the purchase and identification information electronically and/or magnetically read from a card used to make the purchase. Optionally, the identification information may be manually input at the POS device based on a visible CID. The purchase information and the identification information are transmitted to the issuer's computer system, which identifies the financial transaction account and makes a determination of whether the purchase is approved or rejected based on account information regarding the financial transaction account. The issuer's computer system then transmits a message back to the POS device regarding the purchase. Examples of messages sent between the POS device and the issuer's computer system include: a request for authorization, an authorization approval or rejection; an instruction to obtain additional identification to verify the identity of the person presenting the card; a message indicating that the financial transaction account has reached a maximum aggregate dollar amount; etc.
The process of configuring POS devices entails significant costs for the issuers, a large portion of which are the labor costs for the personnel involved in the various aspects of the set-up process. For example, in order for an issuer to perform certification testing, in which merchants submit messages to be used with POS devices for testing and certification by the issuer, involvement by at least six sub-groups of the issuer is necessary, with a typical man-hour usage of 70-75 hours or more per certification test. Certification testing costs can be upwards of $1 million per year for issuers with large numbers of subscribing merchants.
Conventionally, each message submitted for testing is evaluated manually. Thus, the issuer is required to have a trained staff of testing personnel that evaluate messages as they come in. If more messages are submitted for testing than can be handled by the testing personnel, there is a delay in providing test results to the merchants. This delay leads to a delay in when the messages can be certified for use in the merchants' POS devices, which not only can cause merchant dissatisfaction with the issuer but also can cause the issuer to lose revenue from the purchases that would have been paid for using the issuer's type of card had those POS devices been set up to work with the messages sooner. On the other hand, if the issuer overstaffs and employs more testing personnel than necessary to evaluate the submitted messages, the issuer must bear the payroll costs of the underutilized staff. Further, manual testing cannot completely eliminate the possibility of human testing errors, which can significantly slow down the process of getting messages certified for use.
Given the foregoing, what is needed is a system, a method, and a computer program product for facilitating testing of merchant messages using a computer-based global authorization network.